Cthulhu's Reign

predicted patterns. The Old Ones see only patterns, all things arranged schematically. If they saw the grass blades depressed by the edge of the gate, they would attribute that to the wind bending them over. But it was the gate pressing down, though it was not yet visible. Echo saw what it really was and went through the gate to Seeker.”

“But the gate was visible,” Vern said. “It was silver, with other colors. I saw it.”

“Ship made it visual for you and your mother. Otherwise, you might not have entered.”

He was silent for a while. Then he said, “Thank you for rescuing us. Thank you for saving our lives.”

“It is our mission. In the world we are going to there are other Terralike Remnants hidden away. They were rescued too. The Alliance is trying to preserve as many species as possible. The greater number of them does not look like us.” I could not help smiling. “Some of them look very different.”

“Have you and the crew rescued many Remnants?”

“Only your family,” I said. “We were all apprehensive because we had no experience. We are immature.”

“What do you mean, immature?” Vern asked.

“In terms of Terran cycles, I am fifteen years old, Doctor is fourteen, Navigator is twelve, and Seeker is ten. We are orphans. We are Remnants, as you are. Our home was obliterated and we were rescued, though our escape was not so narrow as yours.”

Vern thought, then wagged his head. “Why would your Great Race send out children for such a mission? It seems not very brilliant.”

“But if we were adults and thought in complicated patterns, the way older beings do, the Old Ones could detect us more easily. They are not so closely attuned to the thought-patterns of children or of animals — or of autistic beings.”

“This is hard to take in,” Vern said.

“Is it not better for you here than it was on Terra?”

“Yes. May we wake Moms now?”

“She had to stay asleep longer. Her mind is more torn because the world she lived in so long is unrecognizable to her now. She will take longer to recover.”

“I had a sister younger than Echo,” Vern said. “Her name was Marta. The Old Ones destroyed her when they murdered my father. We could never say her name because we would cry and become too upset. That was not safe.”

Ship sounded some noises to signal that Moms had awakened.

Moms was sitting in a grand, plush chair shaped like a quarter moon beside her deepsleep rectangle. Queenie sat beside her in regal attitude. They looked as if they were granting audience. Moms’ robe was of a softer-looking material than Vern’s and Echo’s, a dark, peaceful blue. It lapped over Queenie’s paws. When she saw Vern and Echo and all the crew come to greet her, she began to laugh and cry. Her face formed different expressions and Vern saw how confused she was.

But she was happy.

“Oh children,” she said. “How fine you look! And you are all dressed up! Is there going to be a party?”

“I don’t know,” Vern said.

So Ship announced that a celebration was scheduled in two hours in the large conference bay. Everyone is invited, Ship said. Please attend. I am proud to know you.

“And we are all cosmically proud of Seeker,” I said. “She has done what all others could not.”

“I am awfully grateful,” Vern told her. “Is Seeker your real name?”

“In your English sounds, it would be something like Inanna,” I said.

He tried to pronounce it.

“Seeker,” I said, “say your name to Vern.”

“In a moment,” she said. She brushed the air with her hand. Her forehead was wrinkled and we knew she was mind-feeling something probably distant, but we could not know what.

About the authors

Mike Allen works as the arts and culture columnist for The Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Va., where he lives with his wife Anita, a comical dog and three psychotic cats. He also writes poetry and fiction. The Philadelphia Inquirer called his verse “poetry for goths of all ages” — his poems have been reprinted in the Nebula Awards Showcase series and Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year — while his horror story “The Button Bin” was a finalist for the 2008 Nebula Awards. He is the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology series Clockwork Phoenix (Norilana Books) and also editor and publisher of the poetry journal Mythic Delirium. Like every other writer in the world, he’s working on a novel.

Ken Asamatsu was born in 1956 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. He graduated from Toyo University to work at Kokusho Kankokai, famous in Japan as the publisher of Lovecraft and many other works of horror and fantasy. His debut work as an author was Makyo no Gen’ei (Echoes of Ancient Cults), in 1986. He continues to be active in a wide range of activities, including writing extensively in the weird historical and horror genres. While remaining extremely interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, lately he has been concentrating on weird historicals set in the Muromachi period (1333–1573). In 2005 he was a candidate for the annual award of the Mystery Writers of Japan, Inc., in the short story genre, for his “Higashiyamadono Oniwa” (Higashiyamadono Villa Garden). He has also made considerable contribution to Japanese fiction as an anthologist, proposing a number of collections successfully published in Japan. The Lairs of the Hidden Gods series, which won high praise in the original Japanese, is now available from Kurodahan Press. http://homepage3.nifty.com/uncle-dagon/

Laird Barron raced the Iditarod three times during the early 1990s. He migrated to the Pacific Northwest in 1994 where he became a strength trainer and studied martial arts. In 2000 he began to write poetry and fiction. Barron’s work has appeared in places such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, SciFiction, Inferno, Lovecraft Unbound! Black Wings, and The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It has also been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple honors including the World Fantasy, International Horror Guild, Sturgeon, Crawford, Locus, and Shirley Jackson awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was recently rereleased as a trade paperback. A second collection, Occultation, and a novel, The Croning, will also appear in 2010 and 2011. He lives in Olympia, Washington, with his wife.

Matt Cardin has a master’s degree in religious studies and writes frequently about the intersections between religion and horror. He is the author of Dark Awakenings (2009) and Divinations of the Deep (2002), the latter of which launched the New Century Macabre line of contemporary literary horror fiction for Ash- Tree Press. He is a regular reviewer for Dead Reckonings, and his work has appeared in Lovecraft Studies, The Thomas Ligotti Reader, Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, The Encyclopedia of the Vampire, The HWA Presents: Dark Arts, and elsewhere.

Fred Chappell is a prominent writer of Southern regional fiction, a retired university professor, a leading poet (who was poet laureate of North Carolina between 1997 and 2002), and winner of the Prix de Meilleur des Livres Etrangers, the Bollingen Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He is best known to Lovecraft fans for his novel Dagon (1968) which recasts the Cthulhu Mythos in a Southern Gothic mode, and for his collection More Shapes Than One (1991), which contains several stories directly